14 DAY TRIAL // Yahoo's current big strategy is to focus on content creation and becoming an online media giant where people come to get news and information about the things that interest them. In order to attract the largest possible audience, the type of content served to users must be catered to individual tastes and needs.
Apparently, this is exactly what Yahoo is doing as it's planning to launch applications that serve personalized content on an individual basis.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Yahoo plans to unveil the platform which would make all of this possible later this month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The software will power a number of mobile applications but should be platform-agnostic, serving content in several contexts.
All of the content would be of particular interest to the user and will be customized for each one. The platform will draw from a number of sources to determine users' interests and curate the content accordingly.
Users will be able to indicate their interests, but Yahoo will also look at search history, any social media platform that users have connected to their Yahoo accounts as well as other sources.
The tool will be available over the web, on any device, but is intended particularly for mobile platforms like iOS and Android, on both smartphones and tablets.
Yahoo is not the first to come up with such a product. Tools like Flipboard serve a very similar purpose. AOL is also working on an iPad application which would serve personalized content.
Newspapers and media companies have been moving towards mobile applications as a means of transitioning to the digital space while retaining many of the particular aspects of a physical newspaper or a magazine, from a content creation and presentation as well as a revenue model point of view.
As both AOL and Yahoo work towards becoming online media conglomerates, hoping to cover as many topics as possible, a personalized app would serve as a great means of getting the right content to the people that wants it.